SoCal trail riding Pics

[breakdirt916]

you guys gotta come, 130+ miles!

different skill level riding, hardpack, dry, tons of wide open easy stuff

it's called Hungry Valley (aka. Gorman). Unfortunately it's a 2 hour drive...and when I got there, I forgot the key to the DR200, so I just rented:



CRF230...with a trials tire (thing hooks up really well!). that thing was PERFECT for Gorman - easy to start (e-start YEAH!), ran great, good torque, and it was geared nice and short so you can use all the power

Weather was perfect, and on the way up I saw at least 4 trailers full of quads and dirtbikes:



despite all the prep, I did, I still didn't leave until about 7:45, so I didn't get there until about 9:30.

Ken was already there with Dane's monstrous YZ426, so he was ready to go:



To start off, we did a quick warm up loop...but just following the trails wasn't a good idea...we ended up stumbling to get up this hill





look to the right of this pic - you can see the slope. To the naked eye, it's not bad, but you sure need some momentum when you're trying to hit the top in 1 go



did a couple of laps around the nearby trails...had some nice smooth/windy turns and elevation changes







First couple hours, we took the powerline trail...nice and easy, hardpacked and smooth:







this place is just beautiful...and riding through the hills with elevation changes is a blast







you just gotta watch for riders coming the other way (and btw, when they flash fingers - that's how many riders are behind them)

from there we connected to the cow trail...a little more narrow, more elevation changes, a little more technical, but view was awesome.





You were pretty much rolling over the tops of all the hills



then we went back, took a break, so I setup the tripod and did some donuts



we hit some jumps:



and rode some whoops:





crossed the street, and blasted down some fire roads:



stopped, and fine tuned our skills around in a mini-track:







anyone like hill climbs?



then started getting tired, and hit some sand:



and more sand:



and by now, after 6 hours of riding, the sand just beat us up...we were spent



So we rode back, and I went for one last loop, and climbed a REALLY big hill:


see the power lines in the back? they were BELOW me...just shows how tall the hill was!

so we rode back, chilled out for a couple hours, took in the nice weather, and headed home

it's worth a trip...CRF250x rental is about $170 for the day...CRF230 was $150...only quad is a 250ex, but imho, quads suck, 2 wheels too many!

[Sqzeplay74]

This looks minty!! Video??

[breakdirt916]

no way, I'm too slow!

but seriously - it's ~2 hours...gotta trim to <5 min clips

[JettaJayGLS]

Jealous...I rode rocky dirty easy coast powerlines this weekend. I still probably had just as much fun though



I'm jealous of the trail system out there for sure, especially the fact that it is all legal.

[typeone]

great pics. i'd love to ride out there.

[ZX-12R]

with a trials tire (thing hooks up really well!)

That looks like the Pirelli MT43 DOT trials tire. I've been debating getting one for my 500. It seems to have a cult following with many non-believers quickly becoming converts. What did you think of it for the time you had it?

[breakdirt916]

yeah dudes, CA sort of riding (dry hardpack trails and desert) are part of the moto trips you should make in your lifetime

Bill - I'm not really the right guy to ask..I'm an XR100 sort of rider...not 500cc real dirtbike sort of guy, haha.

but in my experiences that day, the tires were awesome. On a knobby, I'm used to low traction - I usually kick out the my rear in turns, or just lose traction while going fast, ir engine braking too hard/backing it in. But this tire kept grip everywhere that made it easier to manuever the bike. There's still some slip because it's dirt, but the tire stayed planted better than any knobby I've ever ridden. I wasn't able to test it for longevity, but I've heard that the tires wear extraordinarily well...seeing how hard the compound was, I believe it. One ride on a new knobby tire, and they start to round down. These were still in good shape after a full day of hardpack and rocks. However, I heard they do suck in mud and wet...and out in new england, you get that a lot!

[ZX-12R]

Bill - I'm not really the right guy to ask..I'm an XR100 sort of rider...not 500cc real dirtbike sort of guy, haha.

Don't sell yourself short. I only recently jumped back into the dirt scene (a month and a half ago) and you've been riding fairly consistently for a while now. In that month and a half time frame, my rear tire is just about spent and you are the only person I know that has first hand experience with the Pirelli. The trails and unmaintained roads in my area have lots of hard packed gravel and plenty of rocks which is just the environment a trials tire is designed for. I also do a fair amount of riding on the asphalt getting from one trail to another and I hear they have pretty good road manners too. They can be had for under $80 which makes it a relatively cheap experiment. I'll stick with a knobby in the front though!

[tls25rs]

Bill, talk to KB regarding riding the trials tires in the rear in New England. For a while he was swearing by them.

Joel

[TheIglu]

Trials tire works well on all the rocks and roots but sucks in the mud.

[breakdirt916]

+1

Bill I know you said you have gravel roads and rocks, but if it's anything like I remeber franklin being when I lived back east - usually swampy, then you might want to pass

But if most of your riding is the hardpack, I'd say it's a no brainer for you...join us...

I picked the crf to rent because it had the trials tire...totally worth it.

[Chippertheripper]

Trials tires are great, but the mt43 is a piece of shit. Get a Michelin or Dunlop, the pirellis delaminates rather easily.



That was after 3 rides, with normal tire pressures (you can run really low pressures in the tt)

[breakdirt916]

I went to cleveland national forest today for some dual sport riding...



shit's like the woods in NE - rocks are embedded into the ground, and you just bounce around

my friend had a supermoto w' street tires...he did alright

[ZX-12R]

...but the mt43 is a piece of shit... That was after 3 rides...

Yikes! You seem to be in the far vast minority of people who have had problems with that tire. I'm probably still going to try it out and if I have any problems, I'll post about them so you can tell me "I told you so!"

[typeone]

give Motoz tires a look, the Tractionator is DOT approved and handles low pressures well.

[breakdirt916]

warm up loop...

windows movie maker/youtube have destroyed the quality...fantastic

[breakdirt916]

whoa shit...just linked to this after watching my video...

this is how men ride!



makes me feel really, really slow, ha